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Thursday, July 3, 2014

by CT member - physioscrapper aka Nancy
There are numerous ways to do the same activity in our scrapbooking programs. Previously I wrote one way that you could resize the 12"x12" {My Story} template to rectangular size; today I am going to go step by step and show another way to resize using a shaped template.This tutorial was made with PSE or PS in mind, but the basic premise works for any scrapbooking program that uses layers.
I've gone into considerable detail, including tips/and shortcuts with MANY visual screen shot examples so you can follow along at home. It only looks daunting because of how I detailed each step.
Today we are using LissyKay's My {MOM} template found here: http://store.gingerscraps.net/My-Mom-Story-by-LissyKay-Designs.html

To start, open up the LissyKay {My Story} template in your scrapbook program.Open up in a separate document/page; a blank 8.5" height x 11" width document, at 300 ppi, with a white background. I titled mine: My Mom. You will now have 2 documents open.(You can make it a black background if you like, exactly like the background color in this LissyKay template. White is not mandatory. To see if it mattered, I tried switching on and off the background layer in the LKD template and the background won't be seen on the finished template; so any color for your background will do! Use hot pink if you'd like! lol)

From the LKD temp, we will move all the layers (excluding the background layer) onto our new page. Select all the element and frame layers by holding down Shift and left click on the top layer highlighting it, then while continuing to hold down SHIFT, click on the 2nd bottom layer (not the background). All the layers will be highlighted. Let go Shift, then RIGHT Click, chose duplicate layers, destination "MY MOM", click ok.

With all the layers on the 'My Mom' page that you just transferred over still highlighted, before doing anything else...

Duplicate these highlighted layers to the same page. (right click, chose duplicate layers, and destination is 'My Mom' page. The one you are on.)

You should now have 2 of all the layers, one group on top of the other.

--- For PS users--- Group layers.

If you use the full Photoshop Program, at this point with the 2nd set of layers highlighted; press Cntl/ Com (on a mac) 'G' to GROUP the 2nd set of layers all together into one folder. Rename this group, by clicking on the name in the layers, 2nd set of template layers.

Highlight all the rest of the layers below, and repeat the above. Rename this group, 1st set of template layers.

As of yet, this IS NOT a command available in PSE or other scrapbooking programs. It isn't necessary, just makes things neater and quicker. :)

I see that I
will have difficulty seeing the black frame of the template against my
black background, so I have to change my screen background color.

Right click anywhere on the screen (not the template) and it should give you choices( as below). I'm switching to grey.

Now we are about to resize or transform ALL the layers.

Select ALL the layers in the layer panel. (Highlighting the top layer, hold down SHIFT, then click on the layer ABOVE the Background layer and they all will be selected. Don't choose the background layer as it is locked and won't transform. (you can tell because there is a little lock on the right side of the layer).

Press Cntl/Com + 'T' to get a selection outline around the layers. Note: you won't be able to see all of the bottom corners.

To see the full selection outline, press Cntl/Com + '0' (zero), and this should change the view so that you can see the full selection outline.

Hold down SHIFT (to maintain proportions) click and drag on the bottom RIGHT handle of the selection inward toward the center until the right side of the templates line up with the right side of the document.

Double click inside the selection OR click on the check mark above the template to commit the selection.

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Now we start the 'convergence' of the 2 documents.

We will think of the rectangles of the block document as the background.

The flowers will be the foreground.

We will be resizing the foreground layers to fit the page; then erasing parts of the template that aren't required to show the background blocks.

Turn off the visibility of all the first layers of the template, and make sure all the 'copied' or '2nd set' of layers of the template are visible.

In PSE and PS, this is done by clicking and 'turning off' the little eye on the left side of the layer panel. You want all the first layers turned off for ease of seeing position.

Select and highlight all the copied layers (or Group 2) by holding down Shift, and clicking on the top layer and on the bottom layer of those that were copied.

Press Cntl/Com 'T' to get a selection outline.

Again, to see the full selection, press Cntl/Com '0' (zero).

Holding down SHIFT to maintain proportions, drag the bottom right handle in toward the center to bring the bottom of the frame, to the bottom of your page. Double click inside the transformed area to accept or click on the check mark to accept the transformation. Your page should now look like this.

Instead of holding down SHIFT to contrain or maintain proportions, you can always click on the link between W (width) and H (Height) and everything will stay proportionate.

IN PSE: you want to have a check mark beside "Constrain Proportions", then it will do the same thing.

Turn ON ALL your layers so you can see what will have to be erased. It will look a mess.

If you are using a later version of PSE or PS:

Highlight the top frame layer, and add a layer mask to it.

Layer Masks can be found at the bottom or top of the layer panel and look like a little camera.

By using a mask we will be able to 'erase' without destruction in case we change our minds about what we want.

If you are using a program that DOESN'T have mask capabilities, you will have to use your eraser tool.

If this is the case, may I advise you to make another copy of your frame layers, Control - J, then "turn them off" as a back-up. We will be erasing part of the frame, so if you make a mistake or change your mind about which squares you want to keep; you can simply delete the frame layer you made a mistake on and turn on your copied, but already sized frame.(This is for backup purposes only).

For those programs without masking capabilities, this should be what your layer panel looks like after making a 2nd copy of the top frame.

For those programs WITH mask capabilities, I've gone ahead and added masks to all the top layers of this template including the frame (as this is what has to be altered). Your page should look like this with the added frames.

Make sure your color chips are set so that the foreground color is BLACK. Use a hard brush approximately 150 pixels in size. Make sure you have clicked specifically on the mask (of the layer you want to remove) and slowly paint away the top layers to reveal the frame and color boxes below.

Painting Black reveals what is below, painting White conceals or hides what is below.

(If you find you are painting black right on your picture, you have not clicked specifically on the mask in the layer panel to activate it. Do Cntl/Com "Z" to undo your last step, click right on the layer mask beside the frame, and then using your brush and the black color, brush away the top layers to reveal the bottom frame top and colors underneath.

In the image below, I have masked away the top part of the top frame, part of the red box, so you can see how the blue is revealed, the top and sides of the purple box to reveal the frame, and was starting to mask away the top of the green box.

Here is the page after erasing/masking the top boxes/ and borders away.

We are almost done...now just to get rid of unwanted layers and combine the frames.

First go through ALL the layers, turning on and off the visibility (by clicking on the eye) of each one and hiding the layers that are not needed for your finished page. This should be MOST of your bottom layers.

When all the layers that are NOT needed are turned off or hidden, go to the drop down menu that can be accessed at the very top right of the layers panel and chose Delete Hidden Layers (or delete them each manually.)

Completing the page:

We now have to combine the 2 frames, erase portions of the bottom frame that isn't required, and make sure the layer style dropshadow is still there on the frame.

Combine frames:

Bring the bottom frame up so that it sits under the top frame in the layers panel and add a mask to the bottom frame.

Highlight the bottom frame layer and click on the mask to select it. With a black hard brush start to paint away all the bottom layer frame you don't need.

I personally fine a quicker way is to use the rectangular marquee tool, draw a box around the main portion of the frame that you know has to disappear, use the paint bucket tool and fill the area with black. I will then go back and use a white brush to bring back any area that was removed by my marquee square that shouldn't have been.

If you make a mistake, change your brush color to white and paint what you didn't want erased and it should re-appear. Again if it doesn't, you don't have the mask selected on the layer.

Below is using the marquee tool to select, and the paintbucket tool to fill the area with black, thus revealing what is below.

Below is the frame all corrected and properly masked.

To save the frame layer style, hold down Ctrl/Com and using the move tool, pull the fx that is on the bottom frame layer to the layer directly below.

Delete the top frame layer's fx (style), by clicking on it and dragging it to the trash can.

Hold down the Cntl/Com key and click on both top and bottom frame layers, highlighting them.

Right click and choose MERGE LAYERS, (or the shortcut is Ctrl + 'E').

Holding down the Cntl/Com key, drag the fx up from the layer below up to the frame layer.

The frame layer will again be shadowed.

You will notice if you look at the frame layer, there is still 'extra' from the other layers showing.

We will trim everything up. There are 2 ways.

1) Select your CROP tool and put the size of your page into the width and height...in this case 11" wide, and 8.5" height, and crop your entire page/picture. This will get rid of all the hidden extra.

2) Go to the menu bar, choose IMAGE, then TRIM - then in the box that appears have top left pixel color selected, as well as top/bottom/ left/ right. Click OK

and Voila! a completed page ready to clip papers to the various shapes.

After you've resized once, the second time will come MUCH QUICKER. I hope that by breaking down this process into such minute steps with so many screen shots, that you'll be able to successfully resize without aggravation and also learn some computer shortcuts simultaneously.